Rocky Mountain Outlook: Punching cows at Drake

Some bands, when they take their show on the road head out across the country, or the West or wherever to tour, play as many gigs as possible and spread the good word about their music.

Calgary’s Cowpuncher does that as well, but prior to releasing their latest album, Ghost Notes, the band was on the road to do much of the recording in a mobile recording truck. And just to throw in something else a little bit different, they headed south to record the remainder of the album in a Mason’s Hall in Nanton.

Most recently (Dec. 27), Ghost Notes made CBC radio Key of A’s Best of Alberta 2013 list. The album was also number one on CJSW (Calgary) for a couple of weeks.

“I assembled the group a couple of years ago (2009),” said Olah. “It’s been a pretty loose setup, sometimes seven, sometimes a five- or six-piece, but the more we toured, we kept it to a five-piece.”

The country-flavoured rock of Ghost Notes (2013), followed the 7-inch Hooscow (2012), Call Me When You’re Single (2011) and The Brown Album (2010).

When it comes to songwriting, Olah himself “comes up with the groove and lyrics, then we flesh them out as a group. A couple of our songs were born from just jamming around with something.”

Working around touring and recording, Cowpuncher members hold down full-time jobs will hitting the road as much as possible.

“We try to get out for two weeks at a time, and so far, the great Canadian cross-country tour has eluded us. We’d love to do that, and are aiming for it.

“But this is what we want to do to increase our fan base.”

Currently, said Olah, he and the band are in songwriting mode, working on new material they hope will be recorded in 2014. In the meantime, they keep touring in support of Ghost Notes. “Our other albums were recorded live off the floor, but this one is more involved, with drums and bass, then vocals and guitars all recorded separately.”

Summers for the band are for festival bookings, something Olah is familiar as he works at the Calgary Folk Festival. “Folk festival work is kind of a double-edged sword,” he said. “On one hand it was nice learning how the business works, but it can be disheartening because it’s a little like high school, a popularity contest.”

The story of our band is complicated. We recruited members from some of Calgary's best outfits and tried to be the Iron Maiden of country. We got interested in rocking harder and took things in a different direction. Jeez we got to meet so many great people by doing that. You're probably one of them. Thank you for spending some time with us. Support live music and long live rock and roll. ... See MoreSee Less